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Norwegian embassy in Israel receives anthrax hoax letter

The Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, received a suspicious envelope containing an unidentified white powder and a threatening letter.

According to MiddleEastMonitor.org.UK, this is the fifth embassy in Tel Aviv where such an incident has occurred in the last two weeks. The Turkish embassy received a similar envelope earlier this week. Last week, suspicious envelopes were sent to the U.S., Swiss and Spanish embassies in Tel Aviv.

Reports indicated that the some of the letters have contained threats against a number of high ranking officials and have contained the Nazi swastika, according to MiddleEastMonitor.org.UK.

Officials said the envelope and its contents were sent by the Israeli police to a biological lab for testing and identification, So far, no injuries have been reported. In the previous Tel Aviv cases, the white powder was deemed to be harmless.

Anti-Turkish sentiment has been on the rise in Israel and ties have deteriorated between the two countries after the government in Ankara launched criticism of Israel over the deadly 22 day offensive on Gaza that ended in January 2009. This was further aggravated when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists during a May 31 raid.

Letters containing a white powder have been considered a potential deadly threat since five people were killed in the U.S. when anthrax spores were mailed to news media offices and U.S. senators in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.